day one:drydock

My wife is a star trek fan , she's never really been into gaming (bar a flirtation with Gauntlet:dark legacy co op on the PS2 ), I'd never really been able to get her to try Wow , so part of the appeal was the >slim< chance she'd try it .
I'd toyed with the idea of picking up a copy in game etc , but in the end went with a digital copy from STEAM , as I've got a few games there before and its not too bad , I went with the Digital Deluxe version which consists of:


S..such bonuses as five exclusive in-game items as well as the ability to play as a “Joined Trill” – a symbiote that grants you several lifetimes of experience. The five exclusive in-game items include:

• Original Star Trek Uniform Set: Three uniforms from the original series (blue, red, yellow).
• Exclusive “KHAAAN!” Emote: An unforgettable moment from the second Star Trek Film. This exclusive emote allows players to relive Kirk’s unforgettable moment of fury, with the timeless cry… “KHAAAN!”
• Exclusive Klingon Blood Wine Toast Emote: Raise a glass like a Klingon! Greet other players with an exclusive Klingon gesture –the blood wine toast.
• Unique Registry Prefix: Give your ship the coveted NX prefix, seen only on a handful of elite Starfleet vessels like the Defiant, 22nd century Enterprise, and Prometheus.
• Unique Ship Item: Automated Defense Battery. This Tactical Module grants any ship a passive 360 arc attack power with a short range.
• (not listed anymore on steam but included when I bought it) Chronimetric Armor
  

I basically paid a tenner extra for those , plus the early start , I'm impaitent so not having to wait a few extra days was the main reason I paid extra.

The Steam download was 10gbs! Although this only really took an afternoon (I let the laptop do its work while we took my daughter to the playground!) .I'd had a look at the steam STO forums and saw a LOT of people having issues with steam deleting the entire client.Since I was worried enough that steam was initially referring to the Program as star trek online beta , the first thing I did once the game had back it up.I have an Ok'ish for its age laptop ( an inspiron 1720) and a decent enough desktop so I plan on running it on both , so I'd probably have backed up the files anyway)
Once the baby was in bed , and we'd settled down for the evening on the sofa I fired up the laptop and delved in.After a brief patch (which oddly enough seems to reapply itself every time I run ST:O albeit only for a few seconds) I was in..